Le New Measures Initiative de l’ American Library Association (ARL)

1. Le New Measures Initiative de l’American Library Association (ARL)  Martha Kyrillidou Director, ARL Statistics and Measurement Association of Research Libraries A CREPUQ 1 février 2005 Montreal, Canada www.arl.org

2. The Association of Research Libraries • Mission: influences the changing environment of scholarly communication and the public policies that affect research libraries and the communities they serve. • Members: 123 major research libraries in North America. • Ratios: 4% of the higher education institutions providing 40% of the information resources. • Users: 3 million students and faculty served. • Expenditures: $3 billion annually of which 25% is invested in access to electronic resources. www.arl.org

3. ARL Roles www.arl.org

4. ARL Statistics and Measurement …To describe and measure the performance of research libraries and their contribution to teaching, research, scholarship and community service … www.arl.org

5. ARL Statistics and Measurement …To describe and measure the performance of research libraries and their contribution to teaching, research, scholarship and community service … www.arl.org

6. Web Presence www.arl.org

7. Traditional Statistics • Longest and consistent data series (1908- ) • Describe level of investment • Define membership for the Association of Research Libraries • Used for budget justification purposes • Used for benchmarking with other peer institutions • Describe trends in scholarly communication and for research libraries in general www.arl.org

8. The Challenge of Assessment in Academic Libraries • Traditional statistics emphasize inputs, expenditures, acquisitions, holdings, etc. • National Rankings are often misleading • No demonstrable relationship between expenditures and service quality • The lack of metrics describing outcomes: success from the user’s point of view www.arl.org

9. Assessment “The difficulty lies in trying to find a single model or set of simple indicators that can be used by different institutions, and that will compare something across large groups that is by definition only locally applicable—i.e., how well a library meets the needs of its institution. Librarians have either made do with oversimplified national data or have undertaken customized local evaluations of effectiveness, but there has not been devised an effective way to link the two.” Sarah Pritchard, Library Trends, 1996 www.arl.org

10. Needs that Create Opportunity • Increasing demand for libraries to demonstrate outcomes/impacts in areas important to the institution. • Increasing pressure to maximize use of resources – benchmark best practices to save or reallocate resources. www.arl.org

11. New Measures Initiatives • Collaboration among member leaders with strong interest in this area • Specific projects developed with different models for exploration • Intent to make resulting tools and methodologies available to full membership and wider community www.arl.org

12. A vision www.arl.org

13. LibStats www.arl.org

14. New Measures • LibQUAL+™ • E-metrics • MINES • DigiQUAL • SAILS • Learning Outcomes Working Group • Task Force on New Ways of Measuring Collections www.arl.org

15. Measuring Collections In an environment with increasing emphasis on digital resources, what are the metrics that are appropriate for describing and characterizing collections, and what collection trends are particularly important to identify and track over time? www.arl.org

16. … a revolution in making Il est plus nécessaire d'étudier les hommes que les livres —FRANÇOIS DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD (1613–1680) www.arl.org